Sunday, April 9, 2017

From Comics To Toons: How did the Spider-Friends come together? (Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, 1983)

Back in the 70's & 80's, if an animated series was renewed for a second season, the order would drop from 13 to 8 episodes, as was the case with, for example, Thundarr The Barbarian. Not so with Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends. Only three new episodes were produced for the 2nd season, covering each hero's origin.

For the 3rd & final season, there would be 8 episodes, for a final total of 24. Included was "The Origin of the Spider-Friends", in which narrator Stan Lee explained how Spidey, Firestar, & Iceman came together as a team, and how Angelica Jones (Kathy Garver) & Bobby Drake (Frank Welker) joined Peter Parker at Empire State University.

If J. Jonah Jameson's voice sounds familiar, it belongs to Super Friends narrator Bill Woodson, who was quite the busy fellow back then.

In fact, in addition to Welker & Woodson, at least three other Super Friends cast members also were guests on Amazing Friends, as Michael Bell, Bill Calloway, & Stan Jones were all heard during the course of the series.